After cruising through the regular season as one of top-ranked teams in the state and winning 17-of-18 heading into the District 3-AAAA semifinals Reading High was bounced twice in a span of three days last week. It heads into the PIAA Tournament a wounded team.

"It hurts very much," senior guard Delvon Brown said after seeing the Red Knights finish fourth in the district after entering as the No. 2 seed. "We take that to heart. We were the defending champions of that trophy, and we wanted it so bad.

"I didn't expect this, but this is what happened and this is what we've got to deal with."

The Red Knights (23-5) open tournament play Saturday at 4:30 at Archbishop Carroll against La Salle College (19-5), the District 12 runner-up.

Coach Tim Redding thinks the nine days between games - the Knights lost to Red Land 71-68 March 1 and to Cedar Cliff 79-70 March 3 - will be beneficial.

"This week off is good (for us) mentally, physically, emotionally," he said.

One of the things the Knights have been focusing on this week is improving their defense.

In each of their five losses they have allowed 70 points or more. Just twice (against Coatesville and Gov. Mifflin) did they win when allowing 70 or more.

They're allowing 57.9 points per game, 97th among District 3 teams.

Part of that is because they play at a fast pace, score a lot themselves - 72.6 per game, second-highest in the district - and create a lot of possessions.

However, they had trouble getting stops against both Red Land and Cedar Cliff and found they couldn't outscore them as they have many teams this season. Red Land had scored just 70 points once all season; Cedar Cliff's 79-point total was just one off its season high.

"All throughout the year we've talked about how many points we've been giving up," Redding said. "That's what we started with this week, talking about defensive stops, and that's huge."

La Salle also enters Saturday's game on its only two-game losing streak of the season. The Explorers dropped their Catholic League finale to Archbishop Carroll, then fell to Frankford Saturday.

"That makes two teams that are hungry to get to the next level," said Brown, "so it's going to be a great game - not just a good game, a great game."

Redding said he's anxious to see how the Red Knights respond after losing two straight.

Reading hasn't lost three in a row since the end of the 2009 season, when it blew a big lead to York High in the district quarterfinals, then missed a state berth by losing to both Penn Manor and Elizabethtown in the playback rounds.

Brown is eager to start a new win streak.

"We competed all year, and this is what we set ourselves up for," he said, "to get here and have this chance."